State Of The Artistery

An important Portland all-ages venue says goodbye (and good luck).

EVERYTHING MUST GO: Aaron Shepherd talks shop at the Biz, the record store attached to his venue, the Artistery. - IMAGE: vivianjohnson.com

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Five years may not seem an awfully long time, but for a
Portland all-ages music venue, it’s an eternity. So in the half-decade
that the Artistery has been open on Southeast Division Street—it has
considerably longer roots as an underground venue and Christian artists
collective that began in 2001 in the Brooklyn neighborhood with
sponsorship from the Imago Dei church—it has endeared itself to more
than one generation of music fans and artists.

What’s even rarer
than the Artistery’s lifespan is its self-sufficient financial
structure: In addition to the basement-level venue, the
house—nondescript but for a large painted “A” on its side—holds nine
artist studios. Those artists, in addition to paying rent, must
volunteer at the venue on show nights. The communal nature of the
venture not only lends the club character, it has kept it alive.

For the past eight
years, Aaron Shepherd has been the ringmaster for the Artistery circus.
On his watch, he’s seen it go from an insular art experiment to a
thriving (entirely secular) venue.

In January,
32-year-old Shepherd learned that the Artistery building had been sold
to a large developer (the club’s final string of shows is slated for
this week) that wanted the building’s tenants out immediately. Behind
the counter at his in-venue record store, the Biz, Shepherd is cheery
despite a chest cold and the pending demolition of a community he has
been instrumental in creating. “You never know where life’ll take you,”
he says.

WW: Were you surprised to be kicked out on such short notice?

Aaron Shepherd: It was a surprise. First, [the landlord]
asked us if we could get out in 30 days. I didn’t see any way it could
happen, and it didn’t make any sense. All of a sudden there’s a “closed”
sign on the door? Maybe [the Artistery] isn’t the most incredible thing
Portland’s ever seen, but it meant something to some people. So he
ended up giving us 60 days, and we planned the last week of shows.

How did that last week come together?

I’m extremely nostalgic, and so I remembered what I
considered the golden years of this place. And I just started calling
bands. And everybody said, “Of course.” The type of people I wanted to
be here were the type of people who wanted to do it. That felt good.

Were you ever shut down by the cops in the early days?

At the [Brooklyn neighborhood] house we were really
lucky—we had really loud shows down there, but no one ever complained.
So it was kind of a shock when we moved here and cops would show up. The
neighborhood just wasn’t used to us. There are a lot of stresses
running a place like this. If we get shut down, it’s not just a venue,
there are nine people using studio space here. So it’s irresponsible to
say, “Yeah, screw it, who cares?”

Do you see a silver lining for all-ages music in Portland?

Absolutely. I mean, it takes a while for you to turn 21
[laughs]. That seems like a very long time when you’re in high school or
junior high or whenever it is that you decide you want to see live
music, and I hope that’s motivation for people to start something. There
are places that are doing this sort of thing while supporting
themselves with alcohol sales—Backspace, Branx—I don’t look down on that
at all. Art should be available to everyone, so however you can make that happen is cool. It’s hard to say that the Artistery is the model, because it’s not. It’s just a thing that happened for a period of time.

Do you have advice for people who want to start something like Artistery?

I think you just figure out what you want to do, decide if it’s a good thing to do or not and then do it.
It’s so straightforward to me! What else are we here for if not to just
go for it? That’s what we did. We didn’t have a blueprint for this
place; it just evolved, and we let it evolve. That’s important, too:
Don’t hold on too tightly to your ideals. Just pick the important ones
and stick to those.

SEEIT: The Artistery hosts four final shows this week. See music calendar for details.